I mean, these bloggers are out to make money. So why give away so much quality content without asking for a penny in return?

Well, they’re smart.

With quality content, they build trust and authority. By giving it out for free, they make the quality content accessible to all.

When people ‘taste’ it and see how amazing the content is, they hit the ‘share’ buttons. They email their friends to tell them. They even talk about it on their own blogs and link to the pro bloggers like I’m doing now.

That’s the law of reciprocity. The more you give, the more you get.

That way, those smart bloggers expand their audience and build trust.

And when they come up with their premium products, you’ll see people practically ‘begging’ to pay and jump in.

2. Linking to competitors

You know, if you’re Mr. Biggs, you’ll not tell your customers to go visit Chicken Republic. Doing so is stupid.

But in blogging, doing so makes perfect sense.

Here’s why: people are attracted to the SOURCE.

When you link to your competitors, you’re not sending your readers away. You’re rather serving them better, connecting them with MORE amazing stuff other than your own.

And trust me, instead of your readers running away forever, they keep coming back to you for more resources and recommendations.

Think of it like this: Google is the most popular website in the world today. It records over 1 billion searches every single day.

But look again, Google is just a blank page linking to other web properties, including its competitors. The more it links to other sites (including its competitors), the more people trust it and GO BACK to it.

The big names in blogging which I mentioned above have similar premium products. Yet, they constantly link to each other.

Some of them promote the same affiliate products as I do. Yet, I link to them without fear of losing my prospective clients to them. I’ve also linked to my competitors posting writing contests in the past.

No regrets!

And have I lost some of my readers to them?

No!

Each time I help my readers discover great resources elsewhere on the web, they COME BACK to me. And who knows, some of my competitors I link to might find out and send their own readers to me too.

Everybody wins. 🙂

3. Embracing vulnerability

Some bloggers fake it till they make it. Others pretend too hard to come off as a social media expert when they don’t even have 1,000 Facebook fans yet.

Don’t do it!

The top bloggers are vulnerable. They know and do confess that they aren’t perfect.

They don’t just blab and brag about their blog traffic, email subscribers, social media stats, blog comments and revenues, they also freely share their past failures, present struggles and fears.

That shows they’re real humans, not some pretentious robots or gurus.

If you’ve ever thought Jon Morrow was weird to have shared embarrassing details of his terrible disease… or that I was stupid to have publicly revealed my very humble financial background or how I suffered humiliation for my grammatical deficiency, think again.
I simply copied the experts.

(Note that I only reveal actual failures I’ve had and struggles I’m having. So do NOT invent those you don’t have just to appear vulnerable. That’s dishonesty, another terrible thing!)

Now, it’s over to you.

Question: Do you do these 3 things like the blogging pros? What other counterintuitive but profitable things do you see the pros do? You can leave a comment by clicking here.

Thanks for that brilliant tip, Anu. I know I would likely have created connections with those influencers if I had tried, but I didn’t pursue the idea because I want a Nigerian audience and that’s not what they have.